REVISED AND ENLARGED. 




'"*/ " PHILADELPHIA. 



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\ *\f AVING foreseen the wonderful 

\ ~^ ^ popularity destined for Sweet 

I Peas, we steadily prepared ourselves 

\ until we are accepted 

Headquarters for Seed 

1= of the best varieties. 



W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO., 

SEED GROWERS, 

PHILADELPHIA. PA. 



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ALL ABOUT 



SWEET PEAS 



A COMPLETE EPITOME OF THE LITERATURE 
OF THIS FRAGRANT ANNUAL 



REV. W. T. HUTCHINS 



REVISED AND ENLARGED^ 

&0° 



PUBLISHED BY 

W. ATLEE BURPEE & CO 

PHI LADELPHI A 
1894 




<$ 



Copyright, 1894, by W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 



WM. F. FELL A CO., 

ELECTROTYPERS AND PR.NTER8, 

13JO-24 SANSOM STREET, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



PREFACE. 



It has fallen to the writer's lot, — and has been wel- 
comed as a delightful diversion, — to do pioneer work in 
the literature of Sweet Peas. Only the briefest para- 
graphs on the subject had found their way into the 
floral papers, when, less than three years ago, the 
writer, who had adopted the culture of this charming 
flower as a specialty, began to let his enthusiasm out 
in articles for the press. 

The literature of Sweet Peas could not have begun 
at a more opportune time. Mr. Eckford's successful 
work in improvement and selection had begun to be 
recognized in this country, and down Boston way, at 
least, people had learned something of the magnificence 
revealed in a successful hedge of Sweet Peas. But 
still the introduction of the Eckford novelties in this 
country seemed to "HANG FIRE." 

Only the enterprise of some thoroughly national 
5 



PREFACE. 



seed firm was needed to take up this beautiful flower, 
and to make its rare possibilities known throughout 
the land. 

Indeed, people bought their Sweet Peas mixed and 
very cheaply, and some seedsmen took liberties with 
the names of many varieties, so that, beyond the fact 
that the flower was a favorite garden annual, little was 
said or known of it. 

But the new era began in this country as soon as 
the more distinct Eckfords found purchasers who gave 
them thorough trial. 

The success with these has awakened a deeper 
interest in the culture of the flower and has brought 
the older varieties into greater prominence and demand. 

The Sweet Pea has risentoa newand well-deserved 
dignity, and now takes rank among our most carefully 
cultivated flowers. 

This new book is the first attempt made in America 
to treat the culture of the flower with some degree 
of thoroughness, and the writer takes great pleasure 
in having the book brought out by Messrs. W. Atlee 
Burpee & Co., whose enterprise in the selection of 



PREFACE. 



seed strains, and in making known to the flower-lov- 
ing public of America the rare merits of this delightful 
annual, has been signally successful and liberal. 

The writer would especially say that he has writ- 
ten this book with entire impartiality, and has tried to 
have the work as complete as if he were publishing it 
himself. It is to be hoped that better books will follow 
as our knowledge increases, but in this work as it is 
the writer has tried to make the culture of a neglected 
but beautiful flower as inviting as possible. 

W. T. HUTCHINS. 
Indian Orchard, Mass., Nov. 28, 1893. 




THE QUEEN. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction, n 

A Word of Cheer, 21 

A Study, 30 

How are New Varieties Made? 38 

Varieties of Sweet Peas, 44 

Complete List of Varieties of Sweet Peas, . . 53 

The Latest Eckford Novelties, 62 

The Seed Grower, 70 

A Word to Seedsmen, 77 

As an Exhibition Flower, 82 

Monstrosities, 85 

Soil and Preparation, 87 

Fertilizers, 95 

Time for Planting, 98 

In the Southern States, ic2 

Deep Planting, 103 

Dropping the Seed, icy 

Transplanting, no 

Bushing and Trellising, 112 

Watering, 117 

The Rot or Blight 120 

Sweet Peas Out of Season, 123 

Questions* .' 124 

9 



TO A SWEET PEA. 

CHAS. I. JUNKIN. 

Sweet little flower, who cares to sing thy praise? 

Who crowns thee with the gem of glowing words? 
Thou'rt but a simple thing, of every day, 

Familiar as the myriad-numbered birds. 

Thou canst not match the Lily's purity; 

The royal Rose bedims thy utmost glow; 
And tar Japan has sent her fairest queen 

To bid thee bow thy head and bend it low. 

Thou'rt built of common earth; no royal blood 
Flows richly through thy humble, peasant veins; 

Not thine the palace, better thou shouldst keep 
Thy lowly place beside the village lanes. 

And yet, sweet heart, thou hast a fairer place 
Than princely Mood or grace could give to thee, 

A quiet resting place in gentle hearts 
That love thee for thy sweet simplicity. 

Let high-born flowers contend to win the crown ; 

Let nobles strive to seat them on the throne; 
Do thou, sweet flower, in quiet, fragrant peace, 

Possess the loving hearts that are thine own. 
10 




INTRODUCTION. 

HE POET WORDSWORTH speaks of 
" the flowers of Sicily." The Sweet Pea 



is a native of that island, and was brought 
into notice nearly two centuries ago.* As 
a favorite garden annual it has long been 
familiar to us, although its cultivation has really but 
just begun. Since coming from its native Sicily home, 
where nature gave to it the pink-and-white beauty 
which has always been so popular, it has by the 
florist's art been developed into other colors, such as 
scarlet, purple, blue, brown, etc. But now, in the 
hands of a specialist like Mr. Eckford, of Shropshire, 
England, who has for seventeen years devoted him- 
self to its improvement, it is like a new discovery, 
and is already in the front rank as a fashionable 

* Curtiss' Botanical Magazine, date 1793, says the variety known as 
Painted Lady originated in Ceylon, but names Sicily as the reputed native 
home of the Sweet Pea. 

II 



i2 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

flower, with unlimited promise as to color, form, and 
size. It is the coming flower. 

Paxton's English Botanical Dictionary gives a list 
of about sixty species of the genus LATHYRUS, of 
which LATHYRUS ODORATUS, our beautiful Sweet Pea, 
is one. Some of the other species are coming into 
favor, like the Perennial Pea (Lathyrus latifolius), 
which can now be had in several varieties, and others 
which are better known in England than here ; but 
the queen of them all is doubtless the Sweet Pea. 
The tiny, bright blue Pea, known as Lord Anson 
(Lathyrus carnullus), is rather pretty, and desirable 
in a mixed row, as is also the crimson Pea, Lathyrus 
tingitanus. These latter begin to bloom earlier than 
the Sweet Pea. The Lord Anson, white, is worthless. 

In this country the Sweet Pea wave now indicates 
that its day is come. And while the popular interest 
may recede somewhat, yet this fragrant annual can- 
not be otherwise than a popular flower, and the 
improvements made in its culture will give to it a 
permanent rank among exhibition flowers. Heliotrope 
and Mignonette have little besides their fragrance to 




MRS. GLADSTONE. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



commend them, but the Sweet Pea rivals them in per- 
fume, and then for size of blossom and range of color 
compares with the finest flowers that depend upon 
beauty alone. If mass of color is wanted in a bouquet, 
an abundance of fresh blooms wait every morning to 
be picked, and if grace and airy lightness are desired, 
nothing can surpass this queenly flower. That it is 
everybody's flower is seen in the fact that the largest 
seed-houses handle tons of the seed every year. This 
country now even exports the seed to England. Pro- 
bably two hundred acres in California, New York, and 
Michigan were devoted this year to the growing of 
this seed. 

But still few comparatively have seen 
either the finest Eckfords or, indeed, 
, any Sweet Peas grown to perfec- 
|[j tion. It marks an epoch in the 
/ life of a flower lover when he 
first succeeds in growing this new- 
old flower so as to bring out its true 
thrift and luxury of vine and lavish wealth of 
blossom. The writer will always remember 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 15 




the day when he saw Sweet Peas 
thus grown for the first time by 
a gentleman who for several 
years carried off the first prize 
from the Boston Annual Ex- 
hibit ; and that was before the 
finest Eckfords had appeared. 
Even the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 
have followed a somewhat conservative and 
stereotyped rule in regard to this flower, and 
a few seed-houses only have timidly kept pace with 
the new introductions. This is not strange, for it has 
not only needed a specialist in England to introduce 
the new varieties, but specialists on this side to pay 
the price of the seed the first year, and succeed in 
testing them. The Hampden County Horticultural 
Society, of Massachusetts, gave a Sweet Pea show at 
Springfield in July, 1893, which came nearer to a com- 
plete exhibit of all the varieties than any ever held in 
this country. And this is but the beginning of the atten- 
tion this flower will receive for exhibition purposes. 
But its real value is in its claim of being the 



16 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



people's flower. The cheaper mixture furnishes the 
humblest cot with a complete flower garden, and no 
fair lady of fortune was ever kissed by sweeter lips 
than the royal and titled beauties that are now taking 
the places of the old plebeian varieties. Already the 
price of some of the finest new Eckfords is within the 
reach of everybody. Three years ago the writer suc- 
ceeded in nursing three plants of 
the beautiful lavender Countess 
of Radnor into bloom, but this 
year a fine stock of this variety 
will be offered at a price that 
will make it a general favorite. 
And so with others. 
It may not be generous to compare the Sweet 
II Pea with other flowers. All have their good points. 
I\ But the praises of this flower, when justly sung, will 
appeal to those who distinguish between the loud and 
flashy gaudiness of nature's coarser flowers, and those 
whose sweetness and adorning are in their delicate 
grace and simplicity. The Sweet Pea was first intro- 
duced like a blushing virgin in chaste pink and white, 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 17 



and all the new shades are either of this soft, pure 
coloring, or else of the richest dark shades that have 
nothing loud in them. What will suggest the most 
brilliant complexion like the Blanche Ferry ? And 
then the beautiful range of pink shades, the dainty 
edgings and shadings of- blue, ancf, if one wishes, the 
intensest scarlet and crimson, like glowing coals of fire. 
And then from a glistening white as pure as the driven 
snow to deep blue and darkest maroon the broad range 
is enjoyed. 

The fragrance of the Sweet Pea defies the per- 
fumer's art. Shut your eyes, and this 
flower is still wondrously beautiful. 
The sweetness which the Creator 
has put into it delights the ^^^^"^ 
very soul. Poems have been written 
1 upon Sweet Peas, but not the poems 
1 that are to be. No tribute thus far paid to its native 
'• beauty or simple modesty even, as an old flower, can 
] now do justice to its merits. It commands its way 
; among the rich, .and yet seems on a mission sent to 
convey the most spiritual suggestions to the lowliest 

2 




IS 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



child. What can better adorn a pulpit or cheer a sick- 
room ? 

As a corsage bouquet, or held in a dainty hand, 
this flower outshines any cosmetic, and excels any 
bottled perfume. To the successful grower of a hedge 
if even moderate length it will be 
le pleasantest daily task to keep 
the blossoms picked, and the whole 
neighborhood may share the 
pleasure in the distribution of 
bouquets. From June to Octo- 
ber the writer is not without blossoms 
i 

for a day. Walking through this bower 

of beauty, as the names become familiar, is 

like being received at court. In royal grace 

the Sweet Pea stands to greet you, and is 

not like the Pansy, to whose impish face you must 

stoop and brush the dirt off. 

Mr. Eckford, in a recent letter, writes: 'Mam 
much pleased and delighted to know that my favorite 
flower, the Sweet Pea, is so much admired and appre- 
ciated by such a shrewd and cultivated people as the 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 19 



Americans, and of whom a prominent characteristic is 
that whatever they approve they warmly and eagerly 
adopt. This, I think, is a grand trait in the American 
character ; and the Sweet Pea mania which has 
sprung up in recent years is a grand proof of the 
cultivated taste of the florists and flower-loving public 
of America. It is the sweetest of all sweet flowers, 
and, in addition to its glorious fragrance, revels in the 
most exquisite and diversified tints of coloring ; and, 
moreover, the possibilities of the Sweet Pea are only 
in their infancy, and with the improved system of 
cultivation now adopted it will hold its own against all 
comers as the popular summer flower." 




MRS. ECKFORD. 



A WORD OF CHEER. 



Since this book is chiefly for amateurs, a word to 
those who have lost heart in trying to grow Sweet 
Peas will be in place. Don't give up. Perhaps your 
interest brightened up last spring, and so much was 
said about them you thought some new charm or 
patron saint had cast a spell over them, and all 
you would need to do would be to sow the seed, 
and wait for the bright picture of the seed catalogue 
to bloom right out before your eyes. You invested in 
seed, and about half of it came up. And while you 
were wistfully watching to see the thin row of plants 
grow, behold ! the cut worms took half of them. Half- 
heartedly, you provided something for the few remain- 
ing vines to climb on, when for no apparent reason 
vines that looked thrifty yesterday are drooping to- 
day, and day after day you see them turn yellow and 
die. And in this I am not describing the experience 

21 




0?VRIGf, r 



BYW.A.B.&Cd. 



TYPE OF THE SENATOR. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



23 



of those who know little about floriculture, but of 

many who have mastered other flowers. All around 

me are people whom I have supplied with the same 

seed I use myself, and who see just how I grow Sweet 

Peas, and yet their vines often look like the scattering 

hairs on a bald head. Now, don't 

blame the seedsman. The seed was 

certainly fresh. And, any year, if 

half the seed germinates, that is 

enough. Almost every year I have 

a section of a row here and there of seed 

that I know is only one year old fail for 

some reason to germinate. To meet this, 

I plant little extra rows of each variety 

for the purpose of transplanting, and thus fill 

all vacant places. Then come the cut worms. 

We are very apt to say, " Perhaps there won't be 

any cut worms this year." But there will be, and 

very likely a whole colony of them. But what 

of that ? I left my eight hundred feet of rows 

for three days right in the cut-worm season in the 

hands of a little girl to hunt for them. A glance of 




24 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



the eye each morning will show you the suspicious 
signs of the cut worm. Their depredations last but a 
few days. Make it a capital offense for one plant to 
be cut down. Unless you love to scratch in the dirt 
get some bright boy or girl to poke the worms out of 
their hiding place each morning. Spade your ground 
up late in the fall and there 
will be fewer cut worms. 
It is not the object of this 
chapter to give the remedy for each 
difficulty, but to say to those 
who have failed, success 
is close at hand if you 
will patiently look at 
the situation. 
„ Probably, last June, as one dubious fact fol- 
lowed another, you said, "Well, I won't try 
again," because without calmly considering each diffi- 
culty by itself you lumped the whole together in a 
vague way that magnified the real size of it, and you 
wire discouraged at the time, and not in a mood to 
study the problem point by point. Success with this 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



2< 



flower is certainly worth the continued thought and 
persistent effort you will need to give it. 

I hear you say you followed the rules. But did 
you season the rules with a little common sense, so as 
to adapt them to your case ? Who can make rules fit 
all circumstances ? For instance, an experienced 
English seedsman said he followed my rule of putting 
soapsuds on his Sweet Peas, and he shouldn't do it 
again, for it nearly killed them. He thought English 
soap must be stronger than American. But I suspect 
he applied the soapsuds when the vines were too 
young and tender, before they would 
bear strong feeding. You don't feed 
a baby as you would a strong boy 
or a working man. Read the chap- 
ter on the slow growth of the Sweet 
Pea, and use judgment in the way 
you try to force it along. If you 
made an unscientific sort of a spurt 
last year, just end up all that thoughtless 
kind of floriculture, and find the pleasu 
there is in a little mastery of difficulties, 




26 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



in answering for yourself in a thoughtful way the 
questions that come up. Don't cultivate so beautiful 
a flower at a venture and have three failures for every 
success, but get down to business 
and make success the rule. After 
you have learned the point 
about fertilizers, for instance, 
you might say you have no rules. 
The elements of plant food are to 
be found in so many forms that 
you may never supply your 
potash and phosphoric acid 
and nitrogen twice in the 
same way. This fall I shall put tobacco 
stems into my trenches for potash. That I have 
never done so before is nothing. It stands to 
reason that they will make good plant food fo 
Sweet Peas as well as for other crops. 

But you want simple rules to follow. Ah ! you 
will be likely to blame the man who made the rules, 
although he has boiled his best experience down in 
making those rules. Go back to some old way if you 




: 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 27 

have had better success thus ; but this is probably 
true, that as our most popular flowers are carried up 
to higher forms by the florist's art, only scientific 
rules will succeed. 

. Now you will start in again this year with a pur- 
pose to study principles rather than follow rules. We 
shall not try to boil the rules down 
in this book, but discuss the rea- 
son for this and that. 

Do what you do thoroughly, 
if you sow but a nickel's worth 
of seed. 

Have you thought how, when 
the fever is on, people go into some popular flower 
as they do into the poultry business ? They have 
read just how to do it, and are going to astonish all 
their neighbors by immediate success. If expensive 
seed will do it, then the price paid makes their hearts 
bound-with hope. And of fertilizers there shall be no 
lack. And they seem to think they can inject their 
sudden ambition right into the little, dry seeds, and 
hurry them along. And they propose to make up for 




28 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



lack of experience with energy and enthusiasm. 
But nature is a great plodding machine, 
and is no friend of sudden spurts. 
In this, as in other things, we pay 
a dear price for some lessons. 
Simple as they are after once 
learned, the inspiration of a prophet 
cannot teach them, and only by making 
ourselves the patient pupil of nature can we, year by 
year, get a practical knowledge. And every new 
spring-time we come back to our task with sobered 
purpose and humble submission to nature's jealous 
laws. 

Try again this year ; you may lead the way to 
permanent success. 





INDIGO KING. 



A STUDY. 



The Sweet Pea is a queenly flower in all its 
habits. Its favors are unbounded to those who make 
a conquest of its culture, and there are no florist 
secrets to bring it into most luxuriant bloom. It 
laughingly says, "Win me if you can," and yet there 
is a sweet condescension in its nature that makes it 
take as kindly to the cottage garden as to the skilled 
culture of the mansion grounds. Study the points. 

i. It is an annual. It is wonderful how you can 
lock all this summer luxuriance and beauty and pleas- 
ure in a little, dry seed, and lay it away in safety 
while the winter storms are raging. 

You need exercise but little care how you spade 
in rank manure about your perennial roots. But when 
will people learn how to bring an annual through its 
first tender stage up to that stronger period when 
heartier feeding is needed ? The very term, annual, 

30 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 31 




suggests the extra nursing, care, and judgment 
needed to get the plant along where it will 
shift for itself. 

2. The economy of ground required 
for Sweet Peas. You can afford to take 
more pains with them because they ask 
for only the narrowest strip of your 
precious garden. Take the two 
sides of your Sweet Pea hedge 
in full bloom, and you have a 
garden in the air ten or twelve 
feet wide, and all it asks is just enough soil to hold 
the roots. You could hardly devote a space ten feet 
wide to Verbenas or Phlox, and yet that would be 
the equivalent of your row of Sweet Peas. But to 
offset this economy of ground you must take all the 
more pains in preparing it. 

3. They have a growing season of six months. 
Before the spring frosts have gone the Sweet Pea 
germinates and sends up its great shoot, and on 
through the summer drought and dog days, on through 
September rains, till the mellow days of October alter- 




" WABACo. 



DUKE OF CLARENCE. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 33 

nate with cool and even frosty nights, the green vines 
and beautiful blossoms of this flower adorn an un- 
rivaled length of season. This length of season and 
thrifti ness of growth at once suggest to the florist 
that the soil must be rich and deep to sustain the 
long growth of the plant. 

4. The study of the root. 1 never examine the 
root of a thrifty Sweet Pea vine without surprise. It 
is remarkably small to feed such a growth of vine. 
Examine it at different stages. The first week or two 
after it germinates it has a root out of all proportion 
to its tiny top. By the time the plant has a top an 
inch high it has sent a long, slender tap-root down 
three or four inches. That first root is an index of 
the nature of the vine and seems to say, "I must 
begin at once to get ready for the summer drought." 
But pull up a full-grown vine, and you find that after 
all, for such a rank growth, the root has remained 
comparatively small. Now that tap-root, which gets 
to be six or seven inches long, indicates the rule 
which we follow of deep planting ; and that tap-root 
will probably go as deep as the soil allows. But 
3 



34 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



when you see a thrifty mass of vines in August you 
would naturallyexpect to find quite a mass of fibrous 
roots to support such a growth. And yet, as a rule, 
there are not many, and it looks more like a root that 
would starve instead of feed such a vine. This latter 
fact points to another thing that is fully verified by 
experience. The Sweet Pea is a slow grower. It 
has to be in order to go through so long a season. 
You will wonder all through the month of May what 
it is doing ; it grows so slowly. And people are then 
apt to overfeed it in trying to get it along faster. For 

id- 
ito 
appear to feed 
rapidly. I believe that a scientific 
study of the Sweet Pea root will 
go far toward making success the rule 
among amateurs in its culture. Im- 
atient to help their vines along, people are 
to soak' them with soapsuds or stir in fertil- 
izer, which not only acts as overfeeding would 
on a baby, but, when the June heat begins to 



V^-^ days it seems almost at a stanc 
\ still. Not until well along in1 
<^k' ' i i i) 1 June does the root appear to fee 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 35 

pour down, it finds around those tender vines more or 
less rank matter to ferment. Pour on your soapsuds 
when you see your vines have begun to feed rapidly, 
but don't do it for two months, or during April and' 
May. Indeed, treat that root as you would a child. 
Put the fertilizer not where the baby roots will get 
burned up in it, but where in due time the strong 
vine will get it when needed. The Sweet Pea is too 
queenly a flower to be a gross feeder, and its needs 
deserve to be studied. Of course, these suggestions 
are for the amateur only, who goes about its culture 
more or less blindly, with such conditions of soil as 
make a special preparation necessary. And what is 
said is more to suggest intelligent thoughtfulness, 
rather than to give specific rules. An education in 
ione flower like this will make success in all flowers 
surer. 

The writer hears a great cry about the vines 
idying down at a certain stage. Fine-looking vines 
are suddenly decimated in June. As a prevention, let 
us begin to act intelligently right from the root. A 
root study certainly indicates the rule of deep plant- 



3 6 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

ing, and as for the habit of slow growth, the root 
indicates that also, and suggests that we, too, go slow 
in fussing over them and trying to bring them along. 
Indeed, this slow growth is one cause of abundant 
bloom, for many know to their sorrow that their vines 
have sometimes rushed along with a rank growth 
without blossoms. 

5. The habit of the vine. The 
Sweet Pea vine has a double 
tendency. It is a great 
brancher and it is an abun- 
dant bloomer. You can take 
advantage of this either way, and drive 
it into just a rank growth of stalk and 
branches, or you can make it take on abundant 
bloom. Too much rank manure will send any tall 
Pea into vines. So at certain stages you can use 
stimulants that will set the vine into abnormal growth 
and stop the bloom. Probably if we did not practice 
deep planting, and should disturb the roots by hoeing, 
we should start up a new growth which would check 
bloom. But Mr. Eckford would say, " Press the soil 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 37 

1 firmly about the roots and don't disturb it." Have 

, the fertilizer right and in the right place. Be at ease 

when you see your vines growing slowly at first, for 

1 they are getting steadied down to business. It would 

be a vice for them to grow fast. 

Have your roots deep enough, so that your weed- 
ing will not disturb them. Put on your mulching as 
soon as the summer heat begins to dry the surface. 
Those first buds that show the last of June are a 
precious indication that your vines have not taken 
on a "fast " habit, but are going to keep you busy 
picking blossoms. 



HOW ARE NEW VARIETIES MADE? 



There is no danger of giving away any valuable 
secret here. The simplest way of making new varie- 
ties is to grow Sweet Peas by the acre, and be on the 
alert for an occasional " sport," or to develop by selec- 
tion some peculiarity of which indications are seen, or 
to follow up some special shade, marking, or form, of 
which the seed of those flowers that come the nearest 
to what is wanted must be carefully saved each year. 
" Sports " give quickest results, for selection is a pro- 
cess of years. As to direct hybridizing, try it if you 
wish. You will deserve to succeed if you do succeed. 
You will probably get no result from crossing the 
pollen of one open blossom to another, for the simple 
reason that each blossom fertilizes itself before it is 
fully open. 

Mr. Eckford writes as follows about his experi- 
ence : — 

38 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 39 

" When I first took up the Sweet Pea there were 
six or eight distinct varieties in cultivation, and ex- 
perts in the art, as far as I could learn, had come to 
the conclusion that it could not be further improved, 
and in the first two or three generations of the work 
it appeared a fair conclusion ; but I should say that I 
had been for many years working on the improvement 
of various forest flowers, and which had proved so 
eminently successful that a first rebuff did not deter 
me from further attempts, with the results some of 
which you are now acquainted with, and others which 
can only be presented to the public as I can get stocks 
of them. I took up the Sweet Pea in 1876, collecting 
six of the most distinct varieties I could find, carefully 
fertilizing the one with the other, year after year 
selecting the most promising for recrossing, keeping in 
view properties most desirable to develop, viz.: color, 
form, substance, size. At first progress was slow, but 
after seven or eight years' patient working the varie- 
ties, some of whose praises you have so well sung, 
[made their appearance." 

To any one afflicted with a sudden spurt of desire 




New- 
Sweet Pea, 

American 
-Belle. 



An important departure 
from the coloring and 
markings of all other 
varieties, being neither 
striped nor mottled, but dis- 
tinctly spotted. This point of 
beauty is so novel and striking 
that it is instantly seen with 
. wonder. It belongs to the very 

' .Surpee&cq. ear, y- flowerin S class of Sweet Peas, of 
which we have so few members. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 41 

to try this work of hybridizing, we would simply say 
that it is a most delicate, painstaking, and persistent 
process. In some flowers you need but to shake the 
pollen 'from one open blossom on to another. The 
gentlest zephyr will convey the powdery pollen from 
the tassels of the corn to the silk of other corn, it 
may be rods away, and cross fertilize it. The " busy 
bee" is like a winged anther carrying the pollen 
from flower to flower. But the Sweet Pea smiles at 
all this. You must skillfully begin back with the bud 
a third grown, and first prevent a blossom from fertil- 
izing itself, and in due time, by such process as experi- 
ence will teach you, attempt the crossing. It is very 
interesting to those who can pay the cost of time and 
patience. Hybridizing can hardly be done on the 
small scale of the amateur, for the reason that he 
must keep generation after generation of the seed he 
is experimenting upon. And if he succeeds in break- 
ing up the blood of some old variety he must follow 
up everything that comes from it, for he cannot tell 
what freak it will suddenly develop. Two samples in 
the writer's experience this year will illustrate. 



42 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

From a half dozen pods saved from a single vine 
two years ago the product this year was a broken up 
lot of about six varieties. Two years ago it was a 
small white with the faintest lavender shadings. This 
year, among three or four new developments, appeared 
two old varieties to which the original had borne not 
the remotest resemblance. There is no telling what 
seed from any one. of those might produce next year. 
It shows how, when a break comes, it is a fertile 
source of new varieties. And out of this lot the one 
I prize most is one that I have lost before and may 
lose again. Another case is that of an unnamed 
"sport," the seed of which this year flew into as 
many as six varieties, most of them bearing resem- 
blance to named sorts. On the other hand, my best 
"sport" has for five years reproduced itself ninety 
per cent, right along. Now that we have the Sweet 
Pea grown for seed in various parts of our country, 
very likely the differences of soil and climate will 
bring out new sorts, as seems to be the case of the 
American Belle, a California "sport" of this last 

"ii. A shallow limestone soil made the Miss 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 43 

Blanche Ferry. Selection is the surest process. Out 
of an acre of a variety like the Primrose the seed of 
the deepest color may be saved from year to year, 
probably in time giving us a yellow that will far sur- 
pass what we now have. And so with others. 

The difficulties in hybridizing the Sweet Pea are 
in its favor, for it goes to prove what a remarkable 
flower it is in reproducing itself as an annual true to 
seed. 



VARIETIES OF SWEET PEAS. 



Do not say a Sweet Pea is only a Sweet Pea. 
Probably in no flower is the distinction and naming of 
varieties more genuine than in this. This matter of 
naming varieties is doubtless overdone in some popular 
flowers, but when you can get annuals to come true 
from seed they are certainly as deserving of names as 
the varieties of those flowers which must be propa- 
gated by cuttings. Sweet Pea seed saved from 
particular variety does not reproduce "anything an 
everything" next year, as a Chrysanthemum migh 
do. One of the first questions, when people see 
collection of Sweet Peas growing side by side, is, 
"Don't they mix?" The best answer is to sho 
them a blossom, and tear open the keel containing th 
stamens and pistil. Each blossom is at once seen t 
be independent. And then go further and tear open 
a bud about two-thirds grown, and the remarkable 

44 






ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 45 

act is seen that each blossom has already fertilized 
tself. Even artificial hybridization is extremely diffi- 
ult. While a small percentage of even the purest 
■eed will revert to some old or kindred variety, re- 
[uiring a careful " rogueing " by the seed grower, yet 
he writer is testing this matter every year, and finds 
nost of the varieties very true. 

How true the Sweet Pea is from seed may be 
een in a variety like the Fairy Queen, a white, with 
'ery delicate veins of crimson on the standard. The 
'olid colors are especially pure. And even a " sport " 
vil-1 sometimes take a fixed habit at once. On the 
ither hand, the striped varieties, both in scarlet and 
'mrple, are somewhat inclined to shift. They vary 
rom solid colors to the striped form. This is truer of 
he higher Eckford blood, the Princess of Wales and 
he Captain of the Blues running into each other, 
nd the Senator and Monarch doing the same. Still, a 
lufficiently large percentage to establish their variety 
lames comes true. And as in the case of the Count- 
ss of Radnor, a delicate mauve, that, as yet, it is 
iifficult to hold, several shades may appear, but only 



46 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

enough to make it interesting. Careful "rogueing" 
will soon give them fixed habits. Then as autumn 
advances there is a tendency in certain varieties to 
take on blotched markings. Peculiarities of soil may 
occasion this. Our confidence in the varieties of 
Sweet Peas is also strengthened by the marked differ- 
ences in the seed which have been 
eveloped. Not only are there 
white, and black seeds, but 
those that have the distinct 
mauve shadings, like the Rad- 
nor, Tennant, Violet Queen, etc., 
have much smaller seeds of brown and 
drab markings. And the Orange Prince and 
Crown Princess of Prussia have a smallish brown 
seed. While you cannot tell the Primrose from 
White seed, you know it from all other varieties. This 
classification of seed is not only an evidence of fixed 
varieties, but is very helpful to the seedsman in judg- 
ing whether his stock of seed is true to name. 

The writer has, at the request of seedsmen, tried 
to make the list of varieties which is published in this 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 47 

book as nearly standard as can be made. It is impar- 
tial. With commendable fairness our large seed-houses 
are now careful to give only the names that are found 
on the best English trade lists. 

It is a good time now to determine the standard 
names, for we are just at the beginning of a new era 
[in Sweet Peas, and are likely to have American 
introductions, after which chaos in nomenclature will 
probably follow in this as in other flowers. Here and 
; there a house on the outskirts of the trade does not seem 
to have found out that to-day about seventy varieties 
of Sweet Peas have been regularly christened with 
jnames to which they have as sacred right as the 
jstandard varieties of any popular flower. A reliable 
seed-house will not tamper with Mr. Eckford's list, and 
even where the old varieties have such prosaic names 
as Black, White, Light Blue and Purple, etc., no one 
on this side is authorized to give them any fanciful 
names. Sometimes the term "invincible" is appro- 
priately given to a specially good strain. Again, in the 
case of the Miss Blanche Ferry vs. Blushing Bride, the 
difference is simply in the habit of growth. The 



48 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



blossoms are identical, but the former was introduced 
as having a dwarf habit, and the originators are still 
trying to dwarf it more ; while the Blushing Bride was 
offered as a more thrifty grower and more abundant 
bloomer. The public patronage and interest will 
probably go more with the name Miss Blanche Ferry, 
although the writer prefers a thrifty growing habit and 
a corresponding bloom for all varieties. Whatever we 

call it, it is the most 
popular of all the Sweet 
Peas. The history of 
the Miss Blanche Ferry 
may be in place here. It 
)) j^***' was first discovered by 
W. W. Tracy of Detroit in a 
humble country yard in a limestone region in New 
York State, and was so dwarfed that its bright blos- 
soms were at first taken to be those of some Geranium. 
Growing in the shallow layer of soil above the lime- 
stone rock, it had taken on a pink brilliancy that still 
gives it the lead among all the pink and white Sweet 
Peas. It has practically displaced the old Painted Lady. 




ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 49 

Now, up to this year Mr. Eckford has received the 
Royal Horticultural Society's first-class certificate and 
award of merit on seventeen out of forty-two of his 
varieties. To these are now to be added nine novel- 
ties, the merits of which another season 
will prove in this country. 

In certain cases Mr. Eckford has 
simply given improved form and size 
to old varieties, and has newly named 
them. The old Black he has made 
into the Monarch. The old sal- 
mon-buff Crown Princess of 
Prussia he has now made into 
the Venus, the finest introduc- 
tion last year. The old Adonis he 
has carried up into the Miss Hunt. The old striped 
varieties are now the Senator and Princess of 
Wales, etc. These improved varieties will take 
the place of the old as fast as their price brings 
them within the popular reach. In new shades and 
colors Mr. Eckford has given us more than a dozen 
varieties. His Orange Prince, Countess of Radnor, 

4 




5 o ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



Primrose, Boreatton, Dorothy Tennant, Splendour, 
Mrs. Gladstone, Lady Beaconsfield, Indigo King, and 
Imperial Blue are all especially remarkable in their 
originality of color or shade, and some of these he is 
still improving in size and form. 

The seedsman cannot exclude old varieties from 
his list. The public will decide that by their patronage. 
In recommending lists of varieties the same colors may 
be had in cheaper form, or the improved size for an 
increased price. 

The florist is especially interested in the white 
varieties. Before the Mrs. Sankey was brought out 
there had been but little improvement in the white. 
And the Mrs. Sankey having a black seed and the 
expanded form made its advent very interesting. The 
old white, with white seed and common form, had 
perhaps shown some little improvement in size, but 
nothing that was remarkable under ordinary culture. 
Just now the rivalry is like some of the other races we 
are having. The Mrs. Sankey has made an unique 
place for itself, but the Emily Henderson now bids for 
a leading place as a white-seeded white. And this 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



coming season Eekford's new Miss Blanche Burpee, 
which is also a white-seeded white of large form, will 
enter the race. 

A little fact which ought to go into the history of 
American varieties is that the novelty now offered as 
American Belle was shown as a sport at the Springfield 
show in 1893, and, as a compliment to a lady botanist 
of that city, was, for the day, called the Mrs. Owen. 
The California originators had it in bloom first, and 
have had a voice in giving it its present name. 

This leads to a point of great importance in the 
floral world, both in the interest of the seedsman and 
the public. Both parties want a standard list of 
varieties, and want all synonyms reduced to their 
correct names, and the entire list made perfectly fair 
toward all parties. A list can be of no value to the 
floral world if seedsmen attach names which merely 
advertise their own house. 

When a flower is developed into a large number 
of varieties and becomes a popular competitive and 
exhibition flower it is necessary to know what is what, 
and have standard names. To avoid disputes as to 



52 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

correct names, and as to who shall have the right to 
name a variety, either the claim to priority should be 
established before some prominent horticultural society,, 
or the originator should have his novelty recognized 
and named at some regular horticultural show. Only 
such should have either the recognition of the trade 
or the confidence of the public. And only in this way 
can we avoid the chaos of floral nomenclature. 



A COMPLETE LIST OF 
SWEET PEAS. 



The following is a complete list of all the varieties 
known by the writer at this date. The Eckfords are 
indicated by an *. The varieties which have received 
an award of merit or a first-class certificate from the 
Royal Horticultural Society are noted. Those followed 
by (1894) have just been exhibited in England, but 
are not yet offered to the trade. 

1. ADONIS. Rosy-pink. Small but good. 

2. ALBA Magnifica. A strain of common white. 

3. American Belle. A new sport of Blanche 
Ferry, with blotched wings and almost scarlet stan- 
dard. Is offered this year by W. Atlee Burpee & Co. 

4. * APPLE BLOSSOM. Shaded pink and rose. 
Large and well named. 

5. * Blanche Burpee. (1894.) A very large 
Dure white from white seed. (Award of Merit.) 

53 



54 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



6. *THE BELLE. (1894.) Not described. 

7. BLACK. (Invincible Black.) Dark maroon- 
brown standard, wings blue. 

8. Blanche Ferry. (Blushing Bride, Improved 
Painted Lady.) Very popular; pink and white. An 
American variety. 

9. BLUE EDGED. Still listed, but does not hold 
distinct from Butterfly. 

10. * Blushing Beauty. Soft pink of expanded 
form. 

11. *BOREATTON. Very dark. Deep maroon 
self. 

12. * Bronze Prince. Not listed by Mr. Eckford 
now. 

13. BUTTERFLY. White, blue edged, shaded and 
laced later with blue. 

14. '-CARDINAL. Intense crimson-scarlet. 

15. Captain Clarke. (Tricolor.) White, stand- 
ard penciled and flushed with carmine, wings blue 
edged. Often sold for Lottie Eckford by mistake. 

16. * Captain of the Blues. (First Class.) No- 
ble flower. Standards purple-mauve, wings pale blue. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 55 



1,7. Carmine Invincible. A beautiful strain 
when grown from reliable seed. 

18. * Countess of Aberdeen. (1894.) Very 
pale pink. Large flower. 

19. * Countess of Radnor. (First Class.) 
Pale mauve standards, wings pale lilac. Very fine. 

20. Carmen Sylva. Of the Vesuvius order. 

21. Crown Princess of Prussia. (Salmon, 
Flesh.) Light blush, opening with buff standards. 

22. * Delight. White, with standard at first 
crested with crimson, which becomes very softly 
diffused. This should not be confounded with Fairy 
Queen. 

23. * DOROTHY TENNANT. (Award of Merit.) 
Pucy-violet or rosy-mauve. Large. 

24. * Duchess of Edinburgh. Scarlet, flushed 
crimson, frequently with marbled edge. 

25. *DUCHESS0FY0RK. (Princess May.) (1894, 
First Class.) A delicate shade of pale lavender, 
darker when expanded. Large. 

26. * Duke of Clarence. Rosy-claret. Large. 

27. * Eliza Eckford. (1894.) Not described. 



c6 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



28. * Emily Eckford. A large flower, fading 
from reddish-mauve into blue. 

29. * EMPRESS OF INDIA. Pink and white. Of 
less merit than Blanche Ferry. 

30. Emily Henderson. A new American variety, 
pure white, and of marked substance, having all the 
excellent points of the Blanche Ferry, of which it seems 
to be a sport. 

31. * Excelsior. (1894.) A new scarlet. 

32. Fairy Queen. White, with fine lines of 
carmine on the standard. 

33. * FIREFLY. Glowing crimson-scarlet, of good 
size and substance. Best scarlet up to 1893. 

34. * Gaiety. White, delicate stripes softest pink. 

35. *HER MAJESTY. A very large, showy, bright 
rose-pink. 

36. IGNEA. Corresponding nearly to the true 
Invincible Carmine. 

37. * IMPERIAL BLUE. (Grand Blue, Invincible 
Blue, Imperial Purple.) Blue, shaded mauve. 

38. * INDIGO KING. A dark maroon-purple shad- 
ing into indigo.. Notched standard. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 57 



39. *ISA ECKFORD. (First Class.) Creamy 
vhite, suffused with rosy-pink. 

40. *LADY BEACONSFIELD. (Award of Merit.) 
50ft salmon standard, wings primrose yellow. Distinct 
ind beautiful. 

41. *Lady Penzance. (Award of Merit.) A 
/ery bright pink, beautifully laced with rose. A 
>uperb flower. 

42. * LEMON QUEEN. Large, almost white, with 
1 very soft tinting of lemon and blush. 

43. Light Blue and Purple. 

44. * LOTTIE ECKFORD. Not what is commonly 
sold. Was introduced as a creamy-white with blue 
sdge. Mr. Eckford this year gives this name to a new 
/ariety having pale mauve standards, the wings white, 
beaded with soft mauve. 

45. *METEOR. (1894.) Bright orange-salmon, 
.vings light pink. 

46. * MISS HUNT. Pale carmine-salmon standards 
*vith soft pink wings. 

47. * MONARCH. (First Class.) Bronzy-crimson 
standards, rich deep-blue wings. Large. 



58 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



48. *MRS. ECKFORD. (Award of Merit.) A grand 
flower. Delicate shaded primrose. 

49. *MRS. Gladstone. (First Class.) Opens 
a buff and soft pink, and becomes a beautiful pale blush. 

50.' *MRS. Sankey. (First Class.) Black-seeded 
white. Of largest and finest form. 

51. * NOVELTY. (1894.) Very large. Scarlet, 
orange-tinted standard. 

52. * ORANGE PRINCE. (First Class.) Of well- 
earned fame. Bright orange-pink. Effect when bunched 
very striking. 

53. *OviD. Rosy-pink with rose margins. 

54. Painted Lady. (Nellie Jaynes.) Old popu- 
lar Pink and White. 

55. * PEACH BLOSSOM. Salmon-pink standards, 
upper half shading into buff-white, wings soft pink. 
Distinct. 

56. * Primrose. (First Class.) Near approach 
to yellow. Pale primrose, but deeper than Mrs. Eckford. 

57. Princess Beatrice. Rose-pink of much 
merit. Improved form. Comes between the Glad- 
stone and Hunt. 



1 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 59 



58. * Princess OF Wales. (First Class.) Shaded 
md striped mauve on white ground. Large. 

59. * Princess Victoria. Similar to the 
Duchess of Edinburgh, but larger. 

60. PURPLE. A rich shade coming between 
3oreatton and Black. 

61. Purple and Blue Striped. 

62. PURPLE BROWN. Comes in a dark-striped 
: orm. 

63. * PURPLE PRINCE. Maroon shaded with 
bronze and purple. Ought to give way to the Duke 
3f Clarence. 

64. * QUEEN OF ENGLAND. Ordinary white. 

65. QUEEN OF THE ISLES. (Invincible Red 
Striped.) Scarlet ground, white stripes. 

66. * ROYAL ROBE. Delicate pink, but very 
close to Blushing Beauty. Of large size. 

67. RISING SUN. Curious mixture of orange and 
rose, shaded carmine ; wings pale rose, shading to 
blush. 

68. Scarlet Invincible. Good scarlet for the 
popular trade. 



6o ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



69. Scarlet Striped. White ground, red stripes. 

70. * SENATOR. (First Class.) Large, bold 
flower. Shaded and striped chocolate on creamy 
ground. 

71. Splendid Lilac. Standard bright pink, 
wings shaded lilac. 

72. * SPLENDOUR. (First Class.) Superb flower 
of rich, bright rose color. 

73. * STANLEY. (Award of Merit.) A repetition 
of the Boreatton, although larger under favorable con- 
ditions. 

74. *THE QUEEN. Dull pink standard, wings 
light mauve. 

75. * VENUS. (Award of Merit.) The finest intro- 
duction last year. Salmon-buff variety of improved 
form and size. 

76. VESUVIUS. Standards shading into violet, 
with crimson spots. 

77- VIOLET Queen. (Princess Louise.) Pink 
standard, violet wines. 

78. *WAVERLY. Rosy-claret standards, blue wing 
shaded rose. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 61 

79. WHITE. (An English white offered as Snow 
'Queen.) Common white ; averages well. 

80. Perennial Pea. (Lathyrus latifolius.) Can 
)e had in Red, White, and Pink and White. No 
mention is made of the original varieties, on which the 
writer has been at work five years. 

81. Lord Anson, Blue. (The white is of no 
iccount.) A small true blue, good for a mixed row. 
Not fragrant. Early. 

82. Lathyrus Tingitanus. A rather pretty 
:rimson climber. Blossoms early. 



THE LATEST ECKFORD 
NOVELTIES. 



The twelve new varieties which were tried by 
the writer last summer are a good criterion for judging 
Mr. Eckford's work on this flower. He offered to the 
trade only six of these last year, but as a special 
favor sent the entire twelve to the writer. In addition 
to six offered the year before, it seemed like an almost 
incredible production of new varieties, and was a bold 
challenge to the flower public to judge his work. 

The following are the names and fuller descrip- 
tions of the twelve seen in this country for the first 
time last summer : — 

Blushing Beauty, a soft, light pink, about the 
same shade as the Mrs. Gladstone, but of the larger 
expanded form ; DUKE OF CLARENCE, rosy-claret 
like the Purple Prince and Monarch in form, but mor 
of a wine color than either of those ; EMILY ECKFORD 

62 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 63 



i reddish mauve when it first opens, and on the first 

lay closely resembles the Dorothy Tennant, but they 

3art company in color after that, and the former then 

ipproaehes, as Mr. Eckford says, a true blue, — it is 

:haracteristic of all the blue Sweet Peas that they are 

not blue till about the third day ; FIREFLY, the intens- 

st scarlet-crimson variety we have yet had, and of 

excellent size ; GAIETY, supposed to be a white flower 

striped and flaked with bright, rosy lilac, but with us 

part of the blossoms have a clear red stripe, and the 

rest have had very faint lilac markings, — it either does 

not hold to the description or is not remarkable ; LADY 

I 

BEACONSFIELD, not a loud variety, but of very high 

quality, remarkable for its primrose-yellow wings, and 
having a soft, 'salmon-blush standard ; LADY PEN- 
ZANCE, one of the most striking and pleasing of all, 
the entire flower being a beautiful lacework of bright 
rose-pink, and of improved size ; OVID, another pink 
variety with margins of deeper rose ; PEACH BLOSSOM, 
a buff-pink, the buff on the standard fading almost 
into white ; ROYAL ROBE, a delicate pink of fine form, 
but slightly different from Blushing Beauty ; STANLEY, 



64 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



a deep maroon, and promised to be a large flower, 
which it probably is in England, but with us has been 
no improvement on the Boreatton ; VENUS, a beautiful 
salmon-buff, and the best variety out this year. 

A year ago we could hardly judge of the six 
varieties then offered as novelties, but this year we 
have seen just what they are. These are the 
DOROTHY TENNANT, HER MAJESTY, IGNEA, LEMON 

Queen, Mrs. Eckford, and Waverly. The Mrs. 
Eckford leads the list, and is a primrose-yellow of 
splendid form. Her Majesty is a beautiful rose, a 
shade softer than the Splendour, and larger. Lemon 
Queen hardly holds to its name, because in twenty- 
four hours it has faded into white, but it is large. 
Dorothy Tennant is a fine mauve several shades 
deeper than the Countess of Radnor. Waverly at 
first can hardly be told from Captain of the Blues, but 
while the latter changes into blue, the former holds 
its rosy-claret color. Ignea is a crimson-scarlet, 
shade deeper than Firefly. 

This may be said, that the last two years' intro 
ductions prove that Mr. Eckford has mastered th< 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 65 

problem of improving the Sweet Pea. We want them 
•as fast as he can give them to us. At the same time, 
'the demand for the entire list will be confined to only 
a few seed-houses, and here and there a collector of 
varieties. ' Everybody who wants fine Sweet Peas 
ought to have some of them. 

Of the twelve which the writer tried last summer, 
'the six which will for the first time be offered to the 
trade this season are the Lady Penzance, Stanley, 
Royal Robe, Lady Beaconsfield, Ovid, and Peach 
Blossom. For all of these Mr. Eckford will get two 
shillings six pence for a sealed packet of twelve 
seeds. 

No truly fair judgment can be passed on these 
unless they are grown under as favorable conditions 
as they have been in England. The writer feels 
enthusiastic in their praise, even under the somewhat 
unfavorable conditions of a severe New England 
climate. But his own success did not equal that of 
some grown in one of the Pacific States. There they 
took on larger size and were far more prolific. One 
season is not sufficient to try them, for they need to 

5 



66 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

be acclimated. Another thing : many people are will- 
ing to pay the price of Mr. Eckford's novelties, but 
they want to know how to succeed in germinating and 
bringing them into bloom. No seedsman can put the 
shadow of any warrant on his high-bred seed. The 
buyer must take far more risk on it than on any 
common seed. In appearance, the more one pays for 
Sweet Pea seed, the more worthless it looks. This is 
the price we pay for a good thing, and we must besto 
fourfold more care on it to bring it to anything. 

How shall this seed be treated ? It is often small, 
shriveled seed of low germinating power, and has 
come from a milder climate than ours. We can trust 
our plump, acclimated seed in the early spring ground 
but not these. 

The main point is in germinating them. Get them 
an inch high and they can be transplanted with safety 
I shall use next year eight-inch flower pots to start 
them. Do not germinate them in a hot-house or a 
super-heated room. They need just a little milder 
condition than they would get out-doors. Plant 
them the time of planting out-doors, and as soon a 



11 



• 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 67 

•:hey are an inch high set them right out, unless they 
seem to need a little hardening off. I transplanted 
mine this year about the third week in April, which 
would ordinarily be late for this latitude. Of course, 
seed of low germinating power needs to be favored 
with extra heat to force it a little, but as soon as it 
starts it should be held back rather than forced. In 
Order to have Sweet Peas bloom abundantly, we must 
make haste slowly. 

In sowing the seeds in pots, use a garden soil that 
will not bake too hard. The depth at which they are 
planted in the house is not as important as out-doors, 
since the reason for shallow planting out-doors is that 
the sun's warmth may reach the seed. 

The drainage and porous nature of pots keep the 
5oil from being over water-soaked. Let the sun supply 
the heat. This expensive seed does not germinate 
Very uniformly, so that care is needed in picking out 
plants not to injure others just sprouting. In no case 
break the Pea from the young seedling, and use a 
dibber in transplanting, so as to give the tap-root its 
natural depth. 



68 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



After they are properly transplanted they are 
hardy enough, and nothing but cut-worms need be 
feared. 

In the complete list of varieties given in another 
chapter there will be noticed nine varieties marked 
1894. These were shown in London last summer, but 
Mr. Eckford has not sufficient stock to offer the 
to the trade for at least another year. 

SELECTING A FEW VARIETIES. 



. 



Everybody used to have the Painted Lady ; but 
now the popular favorite is the Blanche Ferry, or its 
Boston synonym, Blushing Bride. These and th 
Blue-edged Butterfly make a pleasing bouquet. 

But you ask for the best ten or twelve of the 
cheaper varieties ; to give you a good, economical row, 
I would name Adonis, Black, Blanche Ferry, Butterfly, 
Captain Clarke, Carmine Invincible, Crown Princess 
of Prussia, Imperial Blue, Indigo King, Mrs. Gladstone, 
Mrs. Sankey, Queen of the Isles. If you want to add 
another twelve without much more cost, I would say, 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 69 

Apple Blossom, Boreatton, Captain of the Blues, 
Countess of Radnor, Duchess of Edinburgh, Miss 
Hunt, Orange Prince, Primrose, Princess Beatrice, 
Princess of Wales, Senator, and Splendour. 

If you want a few of the very choicest of Sweet 
Peas up to date, take the following list : — 

Blanche Ferry, Blushing Beauty, Boreatton, 
Countess of Radnor, Dorothy Tennant, Firefly, Her 
Majesty, Lady Penzance, Mrs. Eckford, Mrs. Sankey, 
Orange Prince, Venus. 



THE SEED GROWER. 



Four years ago it was not thought that Sweet Peas 
could be successfully grown for seed in this country. 
But we have been driven to it by the demand, and it 
is a success. It is estimated that one hundred tons of 
seed was sold in the United States in 1893. Previous 
to this revolution in seed growing we depended on 
England, Germany, and France for our Sweet Peas; 
and for our purest stocks of some old varieties we are 
not yet independent of those countries. Our Pacific 
coast is certainly giving us fine seed. One grower 
writes me that next year he expects to get from two 
to five ounces of seed from each vine of the novelty 
sorts by giving them plenty of room. Each ounce 
represents from sixty to seventy pods. There were 
more than one hundred acres planted to Sweet Peas 
on the California coast this year. In New York State 
the experiment of growing the seed was tried by a 

70 






ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 71 



old culinary pea seed grower, and though the first 
year barely returned the seed planted, the experiment 
seems to be a success now. Michigan is still in the 
experimental stage, and Canada is growing Blanche 
Ferry and Emily Henderson. Our large seed-houses 
have their trial gardens, and some of them adopt the 
excellent practice of sending the carefully selected 
stock of varieties which they wish grown to special 
growers. It requires two years at least to get a stock 
of Eckford's novelties in this country, but our growers 
have worked wonders already in supplying the Ameri- 
can seed trade with the finest Eckfords. 

It is not to be wondered at that with the success 
that has attended this experiment there should also 
be some murmurings. It is going to be a problem how 
to grow the varieties in large quantities and keep 
them pure. The writer believes this can be done, 
and will in fairness to all parties hold the position of 
an impartial critic. Simply as an amateur specialist, 
he will judge all seed that comes under his notice by 
the most exacting standard. It is not the province of 
this little book to tell how to grow a hundred acres of 



72 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

Sweet Peas. The conditions of growing for seed, evei 
in a small acreage, are quite different from those 
under which they are cultivated for the enjoyment ol 
three months' bloom. But the writer believes thai 
whatever the acreage, every pound of seed stock froi 
which next year's crop is to come ought not to have 
"rogue" in it. A small percentage of the purest see( 
will revert or break away from the parent variety, 
and in the general stock which the grower expects t( 
put on the market I do not see how he can make 
every hundred pounds of a given variety absolutely 
pure. The public ought to bear the inevitable pa- 
tiently. But here is a flower which comes wonder- 
fully true from seed, considering how irresponsible 
and uncertain other flowers are. And the grower can 
do one thing which will reduce the mixed condition of 
things to the smallest minimum : he can grow his own 
seed stock entirely separate from his trade stock, and 
can give that which he is to plant next year every 
possible advantage to make it reach its best estate; 
and he can mercilessly eradicate every "rogue" vine 
that appears in it. And in this way' he can not only 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 73 

hold the Eckfords at their best, but carry them on to 
higher perfection. 

He can put expert labor and skillful attention on 
one acre at least, and subject that acre to the demands 
of the very highest standard of "rogueing" and 
culture. We sincerely hope that the mere demand 
for cheap seed may not deprive our flower patrons of 
the privilege of getting the very best by paying what 
it costs to grow it. 

Of course, a large acreage that must be harvested 
at the least expense must be driven along with the 
one idea of making seed, and must be grown so as to 
ripen uniformly, but should be grown so that the 
vines will reach a natural maturity and a vigor of 
growth and abundance of bloom that will show the 
crop has not gone to seed too rapidly. 

We believe that however rich the soil may be, 
the vines will, if the pods are left on, mature in good 
season and in a uniform way. This is all different 
from what the amateur wants. He wants his vines to 
be making fresh growth as long as possible, for the 
sake of a long season of bloom. With plenty of plant 



74 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

food and the pods kept picked, the vines will take 
care of that. 

Now there ought to be some growers who will be 
constantly working for the improvement of the stock 
by special culture, and by throwing the strength of 
the vines into a few of the best pods. 

We see no advantage in doubling the Sweet Pea, 
although it frequently shows a tendency that way. 
But size and substance, and more blossoms on a stem, 
are points of great value in the improvement of the 
Sweet Pea. 

The question of support or no support for the 
vines of a large field of this flower is one that confronts 
the grower. I cannot quite satisfy myself that field 
culture with no support is going to keep the seed stock 
at its best. I certainly think that the grower himself, 
who wants to perpetuate a first-class seed stock, 
should give to that part which he is to use for his own 
planting more favorable attention than he does to the 
general crop which will be consumed by the public. 
It would seem to be practicable to grow a portion 
every year especially for seed, and to give these at 



ALL ABOUT SWEET "PEAS. 75 

least the benefit of a few vines, that the natural climb- 
ing habit may be somewhat favored. 

A photograph just received of the trial garden of 
Sweet Peas of a large Detroit house shows a model 
form of trellis. The plants are in triple rows, and all 
along on either side four-foot poultry wire is firmly 
stretched, with framework at the end to brace it. 
Wire is cheap and stakes are easily driven, and even 
four wires on a side of triple rows would give 
sufficient support. If you give them six-foot brush 
they want it all, but if they find nothing higher than 
four feet they adjust themselves accordingly. 

We would not advise anyone to launch out on 
this extensive growing of Sweet Pea seed without a 
great bump of caution. Yet we rejoice at the present 
remarkable outlook. 

This flower has come into the front rank, and the 
increasing demand will soon make our present acreage 
of seed growing far too small. 




TRIPLE ROWS WITH POULTRY WIRE FOUR FEET WIDE 

ON BOTH SIDES. 

76 



A WORD TO SEEDSMEN. 



This flower is to be popularized, and grown under 
its distinct variety names, probably more than almost 
any flower. Since it comes so true from seed the 
public will soon know what the best varieties are, and 
demand seed-that is strictly true to name. 

A seed-house that values its reputation will not 
sell for Boreatton seed that is three-fourths Black, nor 
sell Butterfly for Miss Hunt, nor Beatrice for Mrs. 
Gladstone. Now that the flower has a literature, 
specific information of its true names and descriptions 
will be staple matter for the floral and trade journals. 

The recent popular demand for seed has hardly 
given our large growers time to acquaint themselves 
with the standard list, so that some of our most 
reliable seed-houses have been misled this past year. 
But it will be seen that it is far* from their own 
interest to either be deceived in or send out by mistake 

11 



78 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

seed of a flower like this, which is now being grown 
so largely by amateurs under its specific variety 
names. Mr. Eckford has had to protect his reputation 
by disclaiming anything sold as his varieties without 
his trade stamp on a sealed packet. And after this 
year our responsible seed-houses, and back of them 
our growers, will have no excuse for not getting pure 
seed stock, and at least giving the public the guarantee 
that their seed is as true to name as it can be when 
only one or two generations removed from Mr. Eck- 
ford's guaranteed stock. We can have evefy variety 
as true as the Blanche Ferry. 

Fifty-two thousand copies of the little book, 
"All About Sweet Peas," went out last year, and 
now, followed by this book, a beginning is made 
toward popular intelligence and a knowledge of this 
flower that will sharpen the vision of thousands, and 
put many a buzzing bee in the seedsman's bonnet if 
he does not fill his orders with true seed. 

But, my amateur friend, be patient with the seeds- 
man. His interest and yours are identical. Don't go 
at him tooth and nail. Give him a year every time 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 79 

to remedy what you show him is wrong. He is far 
more anxious to please all his customers than you 
alone are to be pleased. Try to create in your com- 
munity a definite knowledge about names and true 
descriptions, so that the seedsman will have all the 
more reason to cater to an intelligent trade. 

We especially want to appeal to all our seed- 
houses to help by all fair means to keep the nomencla- 
ture of Sweet Peas free from all names but such as 
the trade generally, or our responsible horticultural 
societies, are willing to recognize. 

And we are likely to have a good many new 
varieties in this country from ''sports" that our 
peculiarities of soil and climate develop. And there 
may be question as to who has prior claim, and the 
right to name them. 

We are very glad that W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 
instead of naming the new "sport" which they bring 
out this year after some member of their family, call 
it the American Belle, a name which no firm will 
object to using. 

Personally we think that, all interests of the 



8o ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



trade considered, it is better in naming new varieties 
to select names that will not be objectionable to other 
seedsmen. 

SWEET PEA SPECIALISTS. 

We broach the question whether America is not 
now ripe for the undivided enthusiasm of SWEET PEA 
SPECIALISTS. We do not limit this to merely ardent 
amateurs. Indeed, all grades of Sweet Pea lovers are 
wanted. But every district in this country that is far 
enough along to have any kind of a flower show, and 
especially every State or section of a State that boasts 
a horticultural society, should have one or more 
persons to champion the Swe"et Pea and exhibit it at 
its best. And, further, a great field is. now opening to 
expert florists to here and there turn attention as a 
specialty to this flower. We are likely to have a 
great deal of cheap seed in this country. You can 
buy cheap Pansy seed, and you can buy it also for 
thirty dollars an ounce. So also of Sweet Peas. We 
do not expect the name and prices of Mr. Eckford are 
going to long represent the only Sweet Pea specialist, 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 81 

although he has done the pioneer work in showing us 
what this flower amounts to. I do not imply that even 
an expert florist can in any short time get the points 
and begin to reap success; but here is a great flower, 
and here is a great country and continent to be 
supplied. And we are passing out of the old five-cent 
seed business into higher tastes, and broader require- 
ments to satisfy them. A mixture of Sweet Peas 
that costs three times the price of the old cheap 
mixture is now bought with avidity, and a popular 
interest is now developing in the new-named sorts. 



AS AN EXHIBITION FLOWER. 



The time has now come when the public should 
see Sweet Peas at their best, and when they should 
enter the lists among other highly cultivated flowers. 
The Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Boston has 
led the way for several years. The conditions on 
which entries are made there on Sweet Pea day are 
simply that there shall be thirty varieties separately 
bunched with fifty stems of each. Sometimes they 
are solid bunches of blooms, and again others loosen 
them out with their own foliage. The prizes are six, 
four, and three dollars, with an occasional special 
prize, like the silver vase taken last year by William 
Patterson of Quincy, Mass., for the best two exhibits 
in three years. 

Last year this Society introduced a new class, 
admitting bunches of six stems each, to meet the case 
of the latest expensive varieties. 

82 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 83 

The Hampden County Society gave a Sweet Pea 
day at Springfield, Mass., last July. The first prize 
was ten dollars. A complete exhibit of all the varie- 
ties was made, including the latest novelties. 

No score of points on this flower has yet been 
adopted. Mr. Eckford, in writing of a standard to 
judge them by, says they should have, "for self 
flowers, standards bold, large, finely rounded, and of 
good substance, fully expanded and quite smooth, not 
loppy ; wings large, smooth, and sufficiently expanded 
to form a center to the flower, but not so much so as 
to unduly expose the keel ; shade of color bright and 
uniform. For fancy flowers, whatever the ground 
color, the stripes or flakes should be uniform and 
distinct." 

None can realize how remarkable the Sweet 
Pea is in coloring till they see such varieties as the 
Orange Prince, Radnor, Primrose, Boreatton, Splen- 
dour, Venus, etc., bunched. With seventy-five differ- 
ent bouquets setting each other off, the effect is very 
beautiful. 

An exhibit, to have educational value, should have 



84 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

every variety carefully labeled — the Eckfords by them- 
selves and the latest varieties prominent. And yet 
the arrangements by colors must not be spoiled. Vari- 
eties which have been awarded special recognition 
should be so marked. 

Exhibitions should be made within a month after 
the vines have come into bloom. It is yet too soon 
for competent judges to be found. They will come as 
soon as exhibits can be produced that call for close 
judging. The latest novelty may be inferior to many 
of its predecessors, but a judge who passes it by had 
better lapse into a mere spectator. A judge who allows 
a lusty bouquet of some common sort to eclipse a few 
stems of something that has cost ten times the amount 
of money and patient labor needs coaching. Especially 
in judging a flower of the refined qualities of the Sweet 
Pea the closest familiarity with its delicate shades is 
needed, and an eye that, at a glance, can discern a 
sport or any candidate for a new name. It is hoped 
that this book will help toward exhibits of real merit, 
and awaken in many minds a desire to make a close 
and full study of this flower. 



MONSTROSITIES IN SWEET PEAS. 



The recent higher cultivation of this flower has 
developed some abnormal growths. It is not likely 
that the doubling of the Sweet Pea will be tolerated, 
although we now frequently have the standard and 
wings thus doubled. Like the Pansy, it would be no 
improvement in the blossom to thus change it. As a 
nodding flower of delicate grace, it must be the edict of 
refined taste that it shall remain in its single simplicity. 
We cannot tell what it may yet attain in size, and, for 
that matter, it may be questioned whether it can be 
called an improvement to make it very much larger 
than the finest Eckfords are now. Something will, 
doubtless, yet be done toward enlarging the stand- 
ard, although it has now been expanded into nearly a 
circle. It seems well nigh to have reached perfect 
size and form. Where, then, shall the future improve- 
ment be ? There is abundant room for it to go into 

85 



86 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



the substance of the blossom. Still more is there un- 
limited room for adding to the number of blossoms on 
a stem. In this latter we have made great advance, 
and we also have monstrosities in double stems that 
give us occasionally seven blossoms, and quite fre- 
quently five. But four blossoms on a single stem is 
now a very common occurrence, and a good strain of 
the Splendour will give nearly fifty per cent, of such. 
The normal development of the Sweet Pea must be as 
a bouqueting flower, and the two points open to great- 
est improvement in the future will thus be the sub- 
stance of the blossoms and the number of blossoms 
on a stem, while holding on to the present improved 
form and size. 



SOIL AND PREPARATION. 



Do not get the idea that any particular soil is 
necessary for Sweet Peas, or that the preparation of 
the ground is a difficult matter. Any one who has a 
sunny strip of ground can have fine Sweet Peas. If 
you have a garden of tolerably rich loam that has been 
well worked to a depth of twelve inches, just hoe out 
little double furrows ten inches apart and five inches 
deep, choosing the sunniest place, running the row 
north and south. 

Here is what Mr. Eckford says about preparing 
the ground: "If not already tolerably rich, a liberal 
dressing of thoroughly decomposed stable manure 
should be dug in some time before the ground is 
wanted,— leaving it rough— what gardeners call rough- 
digging,— and allowed to consolidate before sowing." 

But I shall assume that I am now giving direc- 
tions to amateurs, who want to know how to prepare 

87 



88 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

the soil from the very beginning. If you have only a 
yard filled in with coal ashes and tin cans, you may 
smile at the difficulties and have the finest of flowers. 
You can always dig a trench, and put into it just the 
right compost and soil. Especially with Sweet Peas, 




Where the garden soil is already rich enough, hoe out 
double furrows like this. Cover seed one or two inches 
at first. After they are up fill in till ground is nearly 
level. Do not cover crowns of plants. 



where only a narrow strip wide enough for a row is 
wanted, is this easily done. 

If you have the sunshine and a place to dig, you 
may supply the rest perfectly. 

Now, while a soil inclining to clay is more natural 
to this flower, and makes success easier, still, it is not 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 89 

essential. It probably makes a more compact and 
moist soil, and the young vines do not seem to suffer 
so much from the prevailing blight in such a clay loam. 
The writer has never had a clay soil, although he 
would prefer it. His present ground having been 
about as poor as it could be to begin with, his method 
of preparing it may not be uninteresting. 

At this moment his eight hundred feet of rows 
have just been cleaned up, bushes and vines bunched, 
and the soil is being prepared both for next spring 
and also for two years ahead. 

Just where the rows were this year I get the 
ground ready for two years ahead. I trench these 
about fourteen inches deep, and fill in with livery sta- 
ble manure, so that when trod down there are six 
inches of it solid. The old soil is filled in above. 
This will be left until a year from next spring. And 
even then my care will be, in spading up those 
trenches, to keep the top soil free from fertilizer, and 
to keep the rotted manure down where it belongs. 
That can easily be done, when the time comes, by 
shoveling to one side the upper six or seven inches of 



9° ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



soil and then stirring the rich bottom soil, covering i1 
a little, preparatory for the seed, with the top soil, an< 
following rules for planting. 

But after these trenches are thus prepared for 
two years ahead, I shall go over the ground and gel 
the trenches for next spring ready. As I plant my 
rows each year, there is a space of about four feet left 
between them. The rows next year come in the mid- 
dle of the spaces that were left clear this year. The 
same piece of ground is thus used year after year, 
the next year's rows simply coming between this 
year's rows. This space of four feet is none too 
much to give comfortable room for walking between 
the rows when the vines are in full bloom. 

Now, in preparing for the rows that are to be 
planted next spring, much the same process as that 
described will be gone through, although instead of 
putting into the trenches fresh stable manure I shall 
use something that will be all ready for plant-food next 
spring. Of course, if you have been making it the 
rule to manure the trenches two years ahead, they 
will be ready for planting when the time comes. But 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 91 



I am now speaking of a case like my own. where the 
soil is not up to where I want it; and so I shall make 
sure that where the rows come next spring there is 
nothing that will burn the tender vines or ferment 
around them, and yet that there is a good supply of 
food deep down where the vine feeds. 

Neither plowing nor ordinary spading goes deep 
enough. In preparing for Sweet Peas, especially in 
light soil, you want to lay the top soil off for six or 
seven inches, and then work in what you can safely 
use for fertilizer in the sub-soil. Treat the top soil 
merely as a covering or mulch. Into my trenches for 
next spring I shall put about three inches of tobacco 
stems, and above that work some bone flour into the 
soil. Besides this, I shall put the richest of the soil 
into the bottom and bring the lightest to the top. 
After I get the practice of manuring two years ahead 
under way, it will be a simple matter to get ready for 
each spring's planting. My experience teaches me 
that, with all the pains I take, I must still guard 
against having anything of a rank or heating nature 
about Sweet Pea vines. It is a wonder to me how a 



92 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



vine that loves the cool spring and autumn so well cai 
be in full bloom in July and August ; but it love; 
sunshine above if it can have coolness and moisture 
below. I have known people to manure their grounc 
for Sweet Peas in the spring and to spade it in withoul 
special care, and to succeed ; but there is such a large 
percentage of failures that it is evident no premium 
can be put on carelessness 

Now, we have been describing rather an extrava- 
gant method of growing this flower. How shall any- 
one who can have but a ten or twenty-foot row, and 
whose yard consists of the refuse fillings of a city lot, 
prepare a bed ? If you plant a piece of turf ground, 
first remove the sod a width of four feet, that the 
grass may not draw on your fertilizer. Then, if you 
have taken time by the forelock, and are preparing in 
the autumn, you can put into the bottom of your 
trench even a partially decomposed compost or manure, 
and let the trench lie partially open during the winter. 
But if you wait till spring you will need to make 
doubly sure that your compost or manure is thoroughly 
decomposed, and that only the unfertilized top soil is 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 93 



allowed to come in contact with your vines above the 
roots. It doesn't matter how little richness there is 
in the upper five inches of soil, although after your 
vines are up, and this top soil is filled in, it should he 
somewhat trodden or firmed. 

This kind of culture implies that you intend to 
keep the pods off, and your vines growing until 
October. 

One special advantage of trenching is that you 
can cut off all the robber roots that come from your 
fruit and shade trees to steal the fertilizer and moisture 
of your Sweet Peas. This I find is one of the most 
serious hinderances to thrifty vines. I sometimes 
have fine rows sapped of their life, and before the 
season is half over, unless they are watered with some 
rich liquid, they show every sign of being starved. 

Now I have tried to emphasize the need of a rich 
sub soil, and of a top soil that can in no way injure 
the early, tender vines. We must plant deep to meet 
droughts, but our practice of filling in the soil for about 
five inches about the vines seems somehow to burn or 
rot them when they are tender, and as a preventive 



94 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



we must have that top soil as free as possible fro 
everything upon which the June heat can have a bad 
effect. Just what it is that rots them we do not know 
Our rows are often decimated, apparently less in 
clay than in a sandy soil ; whatever the cause is 
about the first of June seems to be a critical time 

It will at least be a partial remedy to keep the soi 
as cool as possible about the vines. 



from 
d 



FERTILIZERS 



In the chapter on "Soil and Preparation" we have 
given some of the most essential hints, which need not 
be repeated under this head. Good stable manure 
must always stand first among fertilizers, as, when 
liberally used, it feeds the growing vines and accumu- 
lates a good body of humus or vegetable matter in the 
soil, which holds moisture. Horse and cow manures 
have their relative values, but, like all natural manures, 
need to be composted and given time to be well 
decomposed before being applied to Sweet Peas. 
With comparative safety, however, they can be spaded 
in in the fall, even if somewhat fresh, although it is 
hardly best to put a considerable body of such fresh 
manure into the bottom of a trench. Sweet Peas need 
to have the soil kept as cool as possible consistently 
with the process of vegetable assimilation. 

Though cow manure is cooler, horse manure is 
95 



9 6 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



richer in fertilizing constituents, and if properly com- 
posted will be all right. If the only manure you can 
get is still fresh, spade it in a little to one side of the 
vines, where its richness may, during the rains, soak 
through. Or if you think your ground is not rich 
enough, and you have nothing else, give a good soak- 
ing of soapsuds every week; but don't apply this 
until your vines are three feet high. You will find 
unleached wood ashes or anything rich in potash 
specially good to make the woody growth of vines and 
stems ; but apply these things some time before the 
time to plant. Bone flour is a staple article for 
florists, and works especially well with some form of 
potash. 

One can go into the subject of special fertilizers 
and formulas for preparing them ; but for common 
amateur work, outside of good stable manure, thor- 
oughly rotted and composted, such simple articles as 
unleached wood ashes and bone flour are excellent. 
A little basic slag phosphate (odorless phosphate) 
sprinkled over the manure renders it more soluble and 
destroys root-eating insects which attack the plants. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 97 

The writer hesitates about advising the use of nitrate 
of soda except by skillful gardeners. 

If you have had much experience in flowers you 
already make a practice of preparing a good compost 
heap and keeping a stock of thoroughly decomposed 
plant food on hand. Such a pile, rich in stable 
manure and a year or two old, is ready then at any 
time ; or plan your Sweet Pea row two years ahead, 
and fill in a trench as full of fresh stable manure as 
you wish, and let it lie there until another year. 
Don't take any stock in the idea of your fertilizer 
leaching through the soil and being lost. 

As long as the moisture in the ground is drawn 
upward, the dissolving plant food will not go the other 
way. The safest place to keep manure is in the 
ground, provided trees and weeds are not allowed to 
steal it. 



TIME FOR PLANTING. 



: 



No rule is more imperative in Sweet Pea culture 
than early planting. The market gardener under 
stands the nature of common Peas, and he will tak 
advantage of even premature spring weather to get 
his Peas in. It is not because he is impatient with the 
tardy season, but because they need to make root 
growth in the cool, moist spring ground. The only 
thing to wait for is for the winter frost to get out o 
the ground so that it can be worked. All this applies 
as well to the Sweet Pea. It wants to start almost as 
soon as the Crocus wakes up. 

We suspect that those people who succeed best 
with Sweet Peas are the ones who enthuse at th 
sight of the first Pussy Willows, or who feel a 
answering thrill to the first bluebird's note. 

One needs an element of impatience in order t 
be on time in getting their Sweet Peas in. The sam 

98 






ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 99 

bounding impulse that catches up the first pretty 
Houstonia, or peers into the sunny corner where the 
Anemone peeps out, also hears the Sweet Pea seed 
rattling with impatience to get out of its winter prison. 
The Corn and the Cucumber demurely say, "Don't 
plant us till it is time to 'make garden,' " and flower 
seed has to wait its turn. But not the Sweet Pea. 
Flower though it be, it is as hardy as a Dutch maiden, 
and gets the color on its cheeks by being the first 
out-doors. (With many people Fast Day is the reg- 
ular time for planting, and that is all right where 
Fast Day does not take the chances of a late Easter). 
Of course, the time of planting is first dependent 
on latitude. The fall is the time for the Gulf States. 
The great California growers plant in February. 
Whatever the latitude, do not be far behind the Crocus 
bloom in getting your seed in. The earliest life that 
spring wakes up is the harbinger to notify you to plant 
your Sweet Peas. While it may not be too late for a 
month after it is time to plant, we think those that are 
planted first will give the most abundant bloom. In 
England Mr. Eckford advises planting a succession, 



ioo ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

and we may to some extent do that here.' The latest 
seed ought not to go in later than a month after the 
winter frost is out of the warmest part of your garden. 
Fifty miles north or south makes a difference of a 
week or more. In the latitude of New York city the 
second or third week of March would be planting time. 

Your rule ought to be something as follows : The 
sunniest place in your garden is where you should 
plant Sweet Peas, as there the winter frost will be 
out earliest. The first bright day after you discover 
that you can work that sunny spot of ground is the 
day to plant, whether it be the middle of March or the 
middle of April. 

Now, why so early ? Because each variety of 
seed was for a wise purpose made to germinate at its 
own special temperature, and the Sweet Pea germi- 
nates at a low temperature. Then it needs to make its 
own peculiar root growth, so that it will be at its best 
in the most trying summer months. For five or six 
weeks it grows slowly above ground, and will run to 
vines unless at this period it is working below ground 
rather than above. It seems to need these first six 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 101 

weeks to steady it down, so that it will bloom instead 
of running into a rank vine. Certainly the abundance 
of bloom seems to depend on the earliness of planting. 

No matter when your neighbors plant their Sweet 
Peas, rest assured the most successful growers watch 
for the earliest day to get their seed in. 

But what if there are black frosts and snow- 
storms after they come up ? Ah, they are as happy 
as a boy in a snow bank, and it requires a freeze well 
on down toward zero to injure them. 

If you pity them, on cold nights throw some old 
sacking over them. 

For questions of fall planting see next chapter. 



IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 



Fall planting should be the rule anywhere south 
of the frost belt. Our Southern friends may have 
beautiful Sweet Peas. It is useless for them to con- 
form to our Northern time for planting, and it will be 
safe to cover the seed to the full depth at which it is 
to remain. They will probably have to be content 
with a shorter season of bloom. 

North of the Gulf States the time for planting 
should be governed entirely by the first indications of 
spring. Plant as early as it is possible to get any 
kind of seed in. February will be the best month for 
quite a belt of States, and for such States, even though 
the winter is mild enough for fall planting, the seed 
will probably do as well planted in February. And 
the precautions necessary at the North about covering 
the seed lightly would not apply in States where 
winters are mild. 

102 






DEEP PLANTING. 



The rule in this country has varied from four to 
six inches, with mulching above that. Read the 
chapter on "Soil and Preparation" before you ask 
how deep to plant. 

Consider that when Culinary Pea vines have in 
midsummer mildewed and dried up, the Sweet Pea 
must be at its best, full of blossoms, and still branch- 
ing and growing It must be grown in the way that 
will best save it from summer drought. Three inches 
depth with mulching may do in moist England ; five 
inches or even more are better here. And the mulch- 
ing in either case is a grand thing. We may prepare 
our trench or hoe out our furrows at the depth we 
decide on. But now how shall we cover the seed ? 
The rule of covering the seed lightly at first does not 
apply to all cases. It would not apply in the Southern 
States, where the ground never gets very cold. It 

1C3 



io4 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



would not apply in the North if one waits till the 
coldest part of the spring is past before planting. 

The reason for covering the seed 'lightly at first is 
that here at the North our early spring ground is cold, 
and the seed should not be deeper than the sun's 
warmth can reach them. 







TRENCH AS FIRST DUG. 



Quite often, however, people cover them six 
inches at once, and if they have located them in the 
warmest part of the garden and in warm soil, they 
will have no trouble. Indeed, by following the rule of 
light covering it may sometimes be disastrous, for in a 
wet place the alternate freezing and thawing of the 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



105 



seed may possibly rot them. Six inches down in a 
comparatively warm soil there would be no danger of 
this. I am satisfied this rule of covering the seed only 
an inch needs adjustment to circumstances. 

In a short row it would be well to cover lightly 
and lay a board on top for two weeks, so that the 




1§||£„,. 

TRENCH AFTER PLANTED. 



nightly freezing might not reach the seed. If your 
soil is light, two inches' covering would be well. 

Still, throughout the Northern States, as a rule, 
our early spring soil is cold and wet, and to bury seed 
more than an inch away from the sun's warmth is a 
risk. 

Then, after the plants are up, comes the filling up 



io6 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

of the trench. It is not best to be in any haste about 
this. In no case cover the crowns of the plants. And 
this top soil which is brought up to the vines ought to 
be entirely free from anything that can possibly injure 
them. If only a light loam, into which no fertilizer 
has recently been put, is used for this top filling of the 
trenches, we think there will be little trouble about 
the vines dying. 

Please remember, then, that the rules of depth 
and light covering are very adjustable. Light or 
heavy soil largely governs. 

Two weeks' difference in time of planting may 
make the rule imperative or doubtful. 



DROPPING THE SEED. 



Some successful amateurs like to sow their Sweet 
Peas in rather a loose single row, about an ounce of 
seed to ten feet. I much prefer to plant in double 
rows, so as to bush between. By this latter method 
the rows will be ten inches apart; and hereafter, 
instead of dropping the seed in straight lines, I shall 
drop them in a looser way, using enough seed to allow 
for quite a percentage of failure. 

How thickly to sow the seed depends on the 
expensiveness of the seed. If you buy the cheaper 
mixture by the pound, sow it liberally, and, after it 
comes up and gets by the cut-worms, thin out. But 
if your mixture or collection of varieties is of the 
higher-priced seed, you will want to make it go as far 
as possible. 

It is necessary at first to ask, How near together 
should the vines stand ? There is no question in my 

107 



io8 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

mind that we are crowding our Sweet Peas too closely 
together. Three inches apart in the row is better 
than less, and for varieties that cost five cents per 
seed, six inches apart will pay. 

The Sweet Pea is a branching plant and should 
be given more room for that reason. We shall have 
as many blossoms with the vines three inches apart 
as with them two inches, and the blossoms will be 
larger, because the vine is more stocky. 

But in sowing our seed we must calculate on the 
failure of some to germinate, and we had better reckon 
in the cut-worm tax, and, lastly, there are the chances 
of the blight taking some. Moles trouble mine and 
break a good many vines off at the root. 

Now, I shall sow in double rows, dropping the 
seed loosely along on each side of this trench, of the 
cheaper seed fifteen or twenty peas to the foot. But 
after they are past the usual dangers they should not 
stand nearer than three inches apart. 

They must have room for their branching habit. 
In August, your vines fill the bushes out so fully that 
you forget how scattering the plants seemed in May. 











TRENCH 


WITH 


SINGLE 


ROW 


OF SEED. 








"| 


























« 


• 


; • 


• 




'""•".•- 


• •**%' 


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"• * • 


"• 




• • 


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v 



TRENCH WITH LOOSE DOUBLE ROW. 



NO. 2 



» » » 



' • • *, 



TRENCH WITH REGULAR DOUBLE ROW. 



NO. 3. 




DROPPING THE SEED. 
109 



TRANSPLANTING. 



This is an important topic, especially with regard 
to the very expensive, imported varieties. And, 
indeed, it might be well for some amateurs to trans- 
plant their entire row. If you have trouble in making 
your Sweet Peas germinate in the place you want 
your row, it is a perfectly simple matter to sow the 
seed in some sunny nook, or even in a cold frame or 
box, and when they are an inch high transplant them 
to the row. 

If the trench is not ready when the time comes 
to sow Sweet Peas, just go ahead, and plant them in 
any warm corner, and that will give you two or three 
weeks to get the trench ready, when you can trans- 
plant them. If you do this, begin very early. And 
in handling the seedlings do not break off the seed 
pea nor break the tap-root. Do not run the risk of 
having your row half a failure from the start, but, 

no 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. in 

after sowing your row, sow some more somewhere 
else from which to fill up all vacant places. 

In regard to the expensive English novelties, we 
must start them in the house or cold frame and 
transplant them. See chapter on their culture. 

The only trouble in transplanting is with the long 
tap-root. A long, narrow trowel is needed to lift them. 
They may sometimes have a root four inches long. 
A dibber is very useful in setting them. Set them at 
just the depth you found them. 



BUSHING AND TRELLISING. 



There are all degrees of success in growing Sweet 
Peas, and the answer to the question of what kind of 
support to give them depends largely on how thrifty 
your vines are. I expect my own vines to make a 
strong growth, at least six feet high, and besides the 
matter of height, it is quite evident that such a weight 
of vines when wet, and when the strain of a gust of 
wind comes broadside on them, will require a very 
strong support. If you care for only moderate success, 
smaller bushes or four-foot poultry wire may be suf- 
ficient. If your soil has neither depth nor richness, 
and you provide a six-foot hedge of birches, your 
bushes will be more conspicuous than your Sweet Peas. 
Or, if .you neglect your vines, and let them go to seed, 
they will dry up when two-thirds grown. Or, if you 
plant them too thickly, they will make a spindling and 
shorter growth. You are the one to decide whether 
you want a four- or a six-foot support. 

112 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 113 



Then, if you ask what to make the support of, 
judging from most people, you will use that which 
comes most convenient. 

Here are the points to be considered in a support 
for Sweet Peas. Grow them at their best, and 
provide for both height and strength. Then allow for 
their loose, branching habit, and give them width 
enough to ramble. While a six-foot single trellis of 
poultry wire running between the double rows is 
passably good, it cramps the vines, and I would prefer 
to plant the seed in a triple row, and set four-foot 
poultry wire on each side of that triple row. If they 
grow above that, a few strands of wire will give the 
tops something to cling to. Or, if you still prefer to 
use a single support of six-foot poultry wire, "frame it 
up well, and tack on to the posts short cross pieces, 
from the ends of which stretch wires to hold the vines 
well up to the poultry wire. 

I use birches entirely. They are brought to me 
in twelve- or fourteen-foot lengths, just as cut from the 
patch, and from each of these I get one good stout one 
seven feet high, and the lighter top is used to fill in. 

8 



U4 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



These are set with a crow-bar firmly in the middle of 
the double row, and should be trimmed a little. They 
are less unsightly if the tops are clipped to an even 
six-foot level, and the sides are trimmed sufficiently 




TRENCH AFTER THE BRUSH IS SET. 

to present a neat view from the end. These twiggy 
birches are a more natural support, and in the scorch- 
ing sun do not heat, as wire will. Of course, birches 
last but one year, and should be procured early in the 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



ii5 



spring before their leaves start. Make ashes of them 
in the fall. 

There is no limit to the styles of trellis that can 




LOMBARD 

TRELLIS 

Simple frame, with twine carried from one small 
nail to another. 

be made, and they should be so made as to take apart 
easily for storing away in the winter. By painting 
the ground end of the posts or uprights with asphaltum 



n6 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



they will last longer. The printed designs are mere 
suggestions of what can be made cheaply. It ought 
hardly to be necessary to set the trellis up before the 
vines are ready. 

The posts need not be so large but that a crow- 
bar will suffice to set them, and thus digging is 
avoided. In constructing your trellis, judge by the 
sweep which the wind has how near your posts should 
be set. Be somewhat over-cautious about the danger 
of your beautiful hedge blowing down, for that would 
be a serious calamity. The time to bush or trellis 
your vines is as soon as you have filled your trench 
in, and the tendrils begin to reach out for support. 
Keep your vines green and growing as long as you 
can. Good, rich ground, and keeping the pods off, will 
do this ; and when the vines get above six feet, clip off 
the tops, and they will send up new branches. 



WATERING. 



We advise patience all the way through in 
cultivating Sweet Peas. Do not begin to water them 
before it is necessary. Occasionally an early drought 
may make it necessary; but as a rule it is not well to 
begin before the summer droughts strike them. 
Much depends on what kind of soil you have, for, of 
course, if the drainage is good, water will not harm 
them. Still, do not vent your impatience on them, and 
drown them because they seem to grow so slowly. 
Unless you have reason to believe that the ground is 
getting very dry in May, do not try to hurry them 
along. 

On the other hand, look out for summer drought. 
There is but one way to water Sweet Peas when they 
need it, and that is to soak the ground thoroughly. A 
mere surface sprinkling is of little benefit, for the 
water is needed down where the roots are. 

117 



n8 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



They do need plenty of moisture after they begin 
to grow rapidly. Leave the ground a little hollow 
along the row, so that water can be poured on by the 
pailful, or that the hose with the nozzle removed 
may run a full stream and thoroughly soak the 
ground. Do not turn the hose on to your foliage in 




TRENCH AFTER BEING FILLED IS LEFT A 
LITTLE HOLLOW. 



the sunshine or wet your blossoms. After the bloom 
is on the vines water only at the roots. If you mulch 
the ground an occasional thorough watering will last a 
good many days. You cannot hasten your vines along 
by watering in April or May. You don't want to. 
After they begin to grow rapidly above ground, you 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



10 



can then know they wil! both feed and drink boun- 
tifully. Water in the evening. 




y%\ 


ii 1 
f 


Jk 


t#A 







MULCHING. 
Use old leaves, pine needles, lawn rakings, any fine 
litter that has no weed seed in it. 



THE ROT OR BLIGHT. 



Just what it is that causes the tender green bark 
of the vine to become slimy and to decay for a few 
inches above the root is not yet very clear. One 
investigator says, "The shriveled stem is due to a 
cryptogamic disease which attacks the plant just 
above the surface." He recommends deep mulching 
and frequent applications of soapsuds to enable the 
plant to resist the attacks. 

We advise caution in using soapsuds when the 
vines are tender — not to apply it strong. A practical 
English grower recommends a spraying of diluted 
nicotine, one part of nicotine to ten of water. 

But we hope every one who is interested in this 
troublesome disease will consider the common-sense 
means of preventing it. 

All Pea vines love a cool soil for their root growth. 
They want plenty of sunshine above, but coolness 

1 20 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 121 



and moisture and a slow feeding process below. The 
study is how to give them the plant food they need, 
and yet keep the ground cool after the summer heat 
comes. And especially must we study how to keep 
that part of {he soil cool which comes in contact with 
the tender vines above the root. The root itself, 
while it should have only thoroughly decomposed 
manure about it, will still bear more fertilizer than the 
tender stalk above it. We think if the upper five 
inches of soil which comes in contact with the vines is 
entirely free from everything like fermenting manure 
there will be little trouble from the decay of vines. 
And if above that there is a good mulch to shade the 
ground and hold the moisture, the soil which comes in 
contact with the vines will be kept still cooler. The 
danger of the vines decaying lasts only while they are 
tender. After they begin to get their stocky growth 
well under way they feed more rapidly and will stand 
the disease. 

If they begin to die down, watering will not save 
them ; indeed, it might increase the decay. It might 
be well for you not to fill the trench in more than two 



22 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 



inches above the seed until the base of the vines have 
become somewhat hardened to the weather, and along 
the first of June, after they show a stocky body and 
start into more rapid growth, bring three inches more 
of soil up to them and put on the mulch. I speak of 
this simply as an expedient, for the letters that have 
come to me indicate that last year there was an 
exceeding bitter cry over the decimation of vines by 
blight. The rule of firming the ground around the 
vines would also have a tendency to keep the soil cool 
and moist. 

If your vines show a serious indication of decay- 
ing, whatever you do, don't apply anything to them 
which under June heat will raise the soil temperature 
around them. Keep them cool anyhow. . 

You might try the experiment after they are a 
few inches high of laying some narrow boards close 
up to them to shade the ground for a time. And keep 
cool yourself, for you are likely to have as many vines 
as there will be room for when they have branched 
and rebranched into their August thriftiness. 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 123 

SWEET PEAS OUT OF SEASON. 

The writer has just read in a botanical work one 
hundred years old that Sweet Peas were grown in pots 
a century or more ago. It seemed to have been a 
favorite method for getting extra early blossoms. We 
have seen them germinated in pots and transplanted in 
the open ground. We have seen them grown to three 
feet in height in pots, and the whole ball of earth and 
vines turned out into the garden. But the full-grown 
vine has such a modest root that there would seem to 
be no reason for taking them out of the pot. 

We think the fall planting of Sweet Peas must 
be left to mild climates ; not but what such seed may 
in our Northern States either come up in the spring or 
the small vines be wintered with some protection, but 
even if they survive the spring-planted seed comes 
into bloom just about as early. They are easily 
grown in the greenhouse in winter. 

I still believe there are cheap ways in which they 
can be forced in something analogous to a cold frame. 
If, for instance, a trench running east and west, in some 



124 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 






sunny, sheltered place, were dug, and the southern side 
of the trench were slanted off to let the sun's rays in, 
and the northern side kept sheltered, and glass be used 
to germinate them, and then cloth be kept for a night 
covering as long as frosts lasted, it seems to me blos- 
soms may be had in May. 

I have tried rolling up small paper pots, and filling 
a shallow box with them, and dropping a seed into 
each. 

They have been germinated in the house, and the 
paper pots set into the garden at regular planting time ; 
but the season held them back, so that nothing was 
gained. 

QUESTIONS. 

i. Why do vines make a rank growth and have no 
blossoms ? 

Answer. — Gross feeding, especially with a good 
supply of rain, drives all tall peas to vines. And proba- 
bly lateness in planting causes a quick germination and 
too rapid a start. One of the advantages of early 
planting is that it gives them a slow start, and steadies 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 125 

them down to a virtuous habit, which is quite sure to 
give bloom. Such a naturally thrifty climber easily 
makes a vice of rank growth. If planted early, it will 
make a good root, and will be held back above ground 
for six weeks. That holds it down to duty, and to 
almost certain abundance of bloom. 

2. Why does a percentage of seed, when either 
planted or put to soak, fail to swell ? 

Answer. — We would say, at first, that it is old seed 
if it does not swell. But I do not consider that the 
reason. Seed a year old sometimes seems to have this 
fault. I think the real reason is that it is stored in too 
dry a place. It gets baked. It stands to reason that 
the seed of this flower, which is so nearly hardy, would 
naturally lie in the ground through the winter. Much 
of our Sweet Pea seed is stored away for eight months 
in an unnaturally warm place. I believe cold storage 
will largely remedy this. 

3. How many seeds are there to the ounce ? 
Answer. — Of the old plump, acclimated varieties 

there are about 425 seeds to the ounce. 

Of the small, shriveled varieties there are some- 



126 ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS. 

times 600 or more. The light mauve varieties, like the 
Countess of Radnor, have the smallest seed. Plump- 
ness of seed is no sign of quality. The cheapest seed 
looks the best. 

4. Can seed be saved from a mixed row ? 
Answer. — Why, it will germinate and you will get 

blossoms. But after picking blossoms all summer it 
cannot but be inferior seed. And only the commonest 
sorts would probably appear next year. A florist would 
not want it at any price. And now that the finest 
varieties are being grown in such quantity by large seed 
growers, the price of the best is already remarkably 
cheap. 

5. How about soaking the seed ? 

Answer. — The only objection to doing this is, that 
if you follow the rule of early planting the ground is 
comparatively cold and wet, and to put seed already 
soaked into cold, wet ground is likely to rot it. If it 
should prove to be an unusually dry spring, or if you 
are a week or two late in sowing the seed, a previous 
soaking would not be hazardous, and might hasten 
germination. 




Make supports of common 

furring strips, also top rail. 

Set supports eight feet apart. 

For horizontal wires use No. 

16 galvanized. Avoid knotty lumber. Run 

wires from every dot, twenty-six in all. 

Height above ground six feet, and twelve 

inches wide. 

127 




Set the supports eight 
feet apaFt. For horizontal wires 
use about No. 16 galvanized. 
Have the lower wires come just 
outside the double row of vines. 
Make supports and top rail of 
pine or spruce one and a quarter 
by two and a quarter inches. 
Height above ground six feet, 
and twelve inches wide at base. 



2.S 




This trellis is made of part 
twine. It has three-inch-square 
posts, and an upper and lower frame of fur- 
ring strips. At each end are two perpendicu- 
lar wires of No. 10 galvanized, and running 
lengthwise are two horizontal wires of the 
same. The diamond work can be made of 
strong twine, and should be fastened both at the 
middle wire and top and bottom strips. Have the 
rows of vines come inside. Set posts eight feet 
apart. One foot is enough for width. 

129 M 





Made of coarse meshed 
poultry wire. It can some- 
times be bought with seven- 
inch mesh. Posts three- 
inch-square stuff, and top and bottom rails 
as per cut. Set posts ten feet apart. Height 
six feet. It is well to run three horizontal 
wires on each side about six inches out to 
hold the mass of vines where they fail to 
fasten securely. 



130 




Make posts of three-inch-square 

stuff. Height above ground six 

feet. Each rail has No. 10 galvanized wire, 

as per Fig. A, which represents top of rail. 

Extend the loops out six inches on each side, 

and bend them a little alternately up and down. 

Use furring strips for rails. Put posts eight 

feet apart. 



Pi« a 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



linn 



Horticultui 



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WHY WE PUBLISH THEM. 

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ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS *>cts. 

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